Looked into this and a couple of other systems at one point and couldn’t justify the cost for 1 kitty when there’s no reason I’m not capable of emptying his litter box regularly. If I ever became pregnant, due to suggestions against cleaning out litter boxes during pregnancy we’d probably get this one over the flat rake/tray kinds since Mr PoP REALLY hates emptying the litter box.

I am not saying anything against getting a litter robot – I’ve been trending in that direction myself because I tend to mysteriously not scoop as often as I would prefer – but if you are concerned about toxoplasmosis, just get tested now. The concern in pregnancy is really only if you have never been infected before, and if you have cats and/or garden, you may very well already have a titer. So if you document that before attempting pregnancy, you can save yourself some worry.

The other option is to scoop no less often than daily; the “eggs” (they aren’t eggs, but whatever) take more than a day to become infective, so as long as waste hasn’t been sitting there for longer than a day, the risk does not exist.

OR use it as a great excuse to get out of cat box cleaning! I am always looking for excuses, myself.

Yes. As a single pregnant woman, I had no choice but to clean. I was tested and had indeed been exposed at some point. But was also told that you are MUCH more likely to get toxo from gardening–which pregnant women aren’t generally warned about– than cat litter boxes.

I think mostly it’d just be a convenient excuse to eliminate bending over to scoop up excrement with a giant belly more than a genuine worry. That said, no real plans for babies anytime soon, so kindof moot.

Given that my cat HATES the vacuum, I could see her developing a litterbox aversion with something like this. Plus, my hubs cleans the box often enough (not as much as me, but who am I to complain about not cleaning it?). I’ll stick with the low-tech and cheap box.

That sounds outrageous. One of the responsibilities of having a pet is picking up it’s poop, whether that be a dog, cat, horse, etc.

Two of my cat-owning friends have those litter genies which they just love. I didn’t see anything in the description about whether the litter that is removed is kept in a smell-proof container. That would be a deal-breaker for me.

It’s kept in whatever liner bag people put in the bottom. The pictures I saw used plastic grocery bags. You could then remove the grocery bag and put it in a diaper genie or something if you want. (We use used ziplocs.)

When I cat sit, I’m always impressed by how good the various clumping cat litters are these days (compared to when I used to cat sit for a neighbor as a kid). They don’t smell bad and they’re way easier than they used to be. (I guess that’s a vote for not minding cleaning cat boxes as a sitter, but I don’t do it regularly, and that’s a different thing.)

Having something mechanical doing a chore for you is always lovely (e.g. All hail the mighty dishwasher!), but a cat’s feces can indicate if there is a medical problem (e.g., color, hardness, presence of blood). Not seeing it might make you unaware of a problem.

“I think you still see it since it just ends up in a bag that you have to dispose of.”

See, this is where this sort of device falls apart for me, or to paraphrase a colleague’s comment this morning, “This [fancy touch-screen capable-of-sending-emails] coffee maker is the embodiment of the failed promise of robots.” And to be clear, it’s not the “seeing it” part that troubles me — heaven knows I’ve seen lots of poop in my day and expect to see lots more. It’s the “you have to dispose of” part.

I’ve abandoned our Roomba for the same reason. The work involved in getting the dog fur off its brush — and to be fair, the dog in question does exceed reasonable standards for what constitutes an “excessively furry” dog — exceeds the work involved in sweeping. Lose!

I get it. This makes the task easier. And yet. For $369 it should make the task disappear. While still emailing me updates about my cat’s health status!

Robots Cat Litter Cleaner of the Future! Flushes waste directly into sewer system! Sends updates to Central House System! System Prepares a Daily Update! (Hourly Update?) For Human! (So much milk in fridge, so much water consumed by house plants, so many math problems done by child unit #2, so much solid waste in such condition excreted by cat…)

Yes, exactly. Or to paraphrase a complaint filed around the time of Y2K (filed in the void, which is of course where all such complaints get filed), FORGET the flying cars. WHERE is my self-cleaning house?! IBTP.